Chapter 395 (1/2)

After explaining things to the people standing in front of him, he walked back to the monitor.

“I thought it would take a long time, but it looks like things will end unexpectedly early,” Jinhyuk spoke as he looked at his watch.

“We might be able to eat lunch before 1 at this rate. Who’s coming today?”

“Foodmom.”

“That place is decent. One of the ones I had before was horrible. Heck, I would do better than them.”

“I recently heard that that place went out of business. One of my friends work for YBS, and apparently, they had long since dropped all deals with them due to bad rumors.”

“That it tastes horrible?”

“That’s one of them, but…,” saying that, Jinhyuk lowered his voice.

“The one running the food company is the little brother of someone who ran with the funds for a movie production.”

“I think I saw that on the news before. A twelve billion-won movie being stopped.”

“It’s probably that same one. I heard that there were a lot of individual investors. Man, they all got screwed.”

Jinhyuk clicked his tongue.

“That just makes me think that saving up money in your bank is the way to earn money. If you end up investing in things like stocks, you won’t even get your money back,” Changsung spoke as he remembered his salary bank account.

He once turned away a good friend of his, who tried to persuade him to invest in something with him, but not long after that, he heard that that friend went out of contact. He just ran after the place he invested into went out of business. Ever since then, he despised any form of investment.

“Ooh, senior. It looks like you saved up some money, huh?”

“Why do you ask?”

“To have you treat me to a meal. I heard that there’s a beef BBQ restaurant nearby.”

“Hell no.”

Changsung stopped the conversation and looked at the monitor. Despite being young, the actors all looked very serious. They looked like soldiers prior to a battle.

“Relax, you’re doing good.”

Hearing Changsung’s voice, the child actors all eased their expressions. It seemed that the conversation he had with Jihyuk was giving them misunderstandings.

“I think that one is talented. I never saw him nervous. It shouldn’t be that he’s used to it, right?”

Jinhyuk pointed at one of the kids on the monitor. The 2nd beggar. Changsung nodded.

Unlike the others, he showed leisure. Even the child actors for the lead roles were showing signs of nervousness, yet that boy was easing up others by talking to them.

“Thanks to him, I think we can finish early.”

However, no matter how good a child actor was, they were bound to lack compared to the adult actors who had widened their scope with years of experience. It wasn’t an easy feat for the young actors to fill that gap.

This was why suitable direction was needed in order to lessen that disparity. Child actors would usually shoot with other child actors, and the scenes they had to shoot with adult actors were shortened in length as much as possible.

Despite all that effort, the shooting time would stretch out endlessly when working with a child actor who had a shallow understanding of acting. Fortunately, the child actors this time were all doing well, which made Changsung relieved. It was especially good that there were no mistakes while shooting the minor actors since it meant that he could solely focus on the lead actors.

Changsung gave a cue signal. The 2nd beggar who ran to the opening from the street blocked Giwoo. He was following the instructions Changsung gave him during the rehearsal very accurately.

“Who are you to cause a ruckus?”

His tone was very memorable. He was quite calm and composed during their conversation, so it seemed that he had done a lot of research. The 2nd beggar and the other beggars who were about to corner Giwoo, flinched when they looked at the shoes he was wearing. They scanned him from top to bottom in a suspicious manner before realizing what they did. The second beggar walked a few steps back before falling on his butt.

At that moment, Changsung subconsciously spoke ‘whoa’ in a small voice. That was because it looked as though he actually fell over and not intentionally. Only after the 2nd beggar paled and hid behind Uljin did he realize that it was part of an act. He thought that the boy would just sit down after taking a few steps back, but it even looked painful to those watching. He clearly looked flustered for having touched the son of a noble, and Changsung was able to shout cut in a joyous manner.

“Hey, 2nd beggar! Is your ass okay?”

“Yes. It’s fine.”

He returned to a composed boy from a rather lacking beggar that followed Gaeguk. He was dusting off his butt, and the minor actors around him seemed worried about him. Giwoo, who stood opposite to him, seemed quite surprised as his eyes were widened. If the camera shot Giwoo, they would’ve gotten an NG.

Changsung stood up and walked towards the child actors.

“Are you really okay?”

“Yes. I fell over moderately, so I’m not hurt.”

“That’s good, then. But still, don’t try too hard. It’ll be on us if an accident occurs on set. Safety is always first. Understand?”

“Yes. I will bear that in mind.”

“But rather than that. Do you do some sports or something?”

“I’m learning action acting.”

“Oh, really now?”

Changsung stroked his chin. This guy was becoming more and more decent the more he looked into him.

“Hey, you came here through the audition right? The general audition.”

“Yes.”

“I think you are fit for this job, so try aiming to be an actor. If you show your face here and there, you’ll attract some attention. Well, it’s hard to enter an agency these days, but those that will, will do so sooner or later.”

The 2nd beggar replied after some time. There was an awkward smile on his face. Was he embarrassed because he was complimented? It seemed that he was still a kid after all.

“We still need to get a few more cuts, so let’s keep going.”

After returning to his spot, Changsung signalled the sound engineer and the camera director.

* * *

“Wow.”

Someone exclaimed from the side.

“It looks good,” Maru spoke as he picked up a plate.

When he heard that it was time for lunch, he thought that he would receive a lunch box, but there was a buffet waiting for him instead. There were skewers, which were a hassle to make, to meat dishes, sandwiches, and even bibimbap.

“Have a good meal.”

A man wearing a white bandana handed out some drinks. He had heard before, that historical dramas had a lot of production budget, and it turned out that even the food was different. He stuffed his plate full of food before sitting on a mat laid out on the ground.

“I’m definitely going for seconds after this.”

“I’m definitely getting more than I’m getting paid from this.”

The minor actors, who had stayed together for half a day, had become close. Bitna, the youngest, went to meet her mom during break times before joining them. She was at an age where she would be more at ease with her mother rather than strangers, so he felt somewhat proud and worried that she decided to join them.